The Pier Antique Show, continuing through today in Manhattan, was one of the most enjoyable shows I have attended in some time. There I found a wide variety of merchandise, and knowledgeable dealers. One of the nicest things is when you come away from a show with new knowledge or new interest. I had valuable conversations about antique ceramic tiles, Wedgewood and Royal Doulton in the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition. What I didn't see was much 19th Century American furniture. Talking with one local dealer about this, he said "brown furniture is out," and he couldn't bring it to shows anyway, because it's too heavy. One piece I did see was a 19th Century Classical sofa, with circa 1970s black plastic upholstery. "I can't believe they did that to it," I said to the dealer. She seemed somewhat defensive, so I added, "I bet it wouldn't have sold otherwise though." She responded with "probably not."

Here is the information about Pier Antiques Show on Nov 15-16, 2008.

And wear a good pair of shoe since there are 500 exhibitors.

From my few words to dealers, it seemed that things weren't so great in terms of sales last weekend at the Gramercy Antiques Show. One dealer had been coming for more than ten years, but this was probably the worst. This informal survey was confirmed by the fact that I was there twice, probably for some four hours and didn't notice anyone leaving with anything.

If you read Maine Antiques Digest, you might notice some bargains going through auction. One example in the most recent issue is a Philadelphia Chippendale Chair, estimated at three times its selling price. A Belter table, one that would hve brought $20,000 or more a few years back, went for $8,000.

That the mid-market isn't good isn't news. Now it seems even the high-end isn't so hot. Take for example the recent news from Sotheby's.

Have antiques just fallen out of favor? Perhaps for now. I do think low to mid-range buyers are squeezed in places like New York by housing costs. The trendy glass condo look has encouraged shopping at Ikea rather than a flea market or antique shop. At the mid to high end, especially in terms of American antiques, there's just not a good feeling about the country and its heritage right now, and aside from the economy, that's not helping. But as JP Morgan noted long ago about markets, whether they be finance or antiques, they will fluctuate.

It was a beautiful day for a trip North. And Eric and I took the suggestion from a friend and hopped onto the Metro North. Just 72 minutes away from Grand Central, Cold Spring NY feels so laid back as if life has not changed that much since the 19th century.

Hudson River is much wider than what I had expected. The cliffs are high and mountains layered. On the train, I watched the grand panorama in awe not just because of its natural beauty but also its history with Thomas Cole and Edwin Church, both of whose houses have been preserved nowadays.

Along the Main street of Cold Spring, we explored most of the antique stores. Except one high-end stores with meticulous Mahogany veneered pier tables and side boards, other stores are fun to sift through. An old women told me how to tell whether a cloisonne was made in China or Japan. It looked fairly old, then I saw in the same locked cabinet a very amateurishly carved alabaster statue of Nefertiti, probably from a souvenir market store. I have seen the picture of the famous statue now residing in Berlin, well simply put the alabaster statue definitely cannot justify her beauty. To make things worse, the old lady said that she had another one and pointing up to the top of a cabinet behind her. This Nefertiti head statue turned out to be black color , more like a head of the female mannequin from Macy's.

Eric and I picked the restaurant at the corner of Rt 9D and Rt 301, which is housed in a historical building dated in 1830's. I had the biggest burger in my life and nevertheless I finished it. In the restaurant, we met people from Boston. The owner of the restaurant spend quite some time to explain why he thought the building was built in 1850's, which was contradictory to what is said in the guide brochure.

For more about the history of Cold Spring, visit here.

I went inside the visible storage rooms last week for the Small Wonders exhibition in Brooklyn Museum. It took the place of the Japanese woodblock prints and the American artworks they influenced. It is an interesting idea that inside the Luce Center part of the visible storage will be devoted to temporary exhibitions.

Among these small wonders, there are objects in textiles, porcelains, flatware and ceramic tiles. Nudged by Eric, I noticed two objects came from the Ohio Valley where Eric and I had visited extensively in the past. One tile is from Zanesville, Ohio. Another tile was made in Beaver Falls, Penna. I immediately recalled vividly our visits to these two small places.

The trip to Zanesville was to fulfill the mission of finding a bird bath in the yard. Zanesville's historical fame and association with glass and ceramics could be seen through the antique malls lined along route 22. Another interesting observation that I have made was the abundant books by Thomas Mann published in 20's and 30's by Alfred Knopf. Not accidentally this was a period that many famous German exiled immigrates such as Mann or Schoenberg found their followers in the US. Their high culture root was praised and fostered all over the country. In particular Mann was regarded as a heritage culture authority and a champion of liberal and democratic values.

It was a smoldering day and we ended up buying a chunk concrete bird bath featuring a group of chubby angles which we sold later at half of the price before the move to Brooklyn. But the surprise of that trip came from the stop at Cambridge, Ohio where we found a nice art gallery in which we bought a painting by a local senior painter and a used-book store where I found the first edition of In Cold Blood for 15 dollars.

Beaver Falls is smaller. It is one of those dying river towns-- the scenery painted by George Hetzel more than 100 years ago, given away to mills and factories which subsequently died out with the declination of manufacturing sectors. When my ex-classmate moved from State College to Beaver Falls, they were told that they made the history to become the first Chinese residents of the town. "That grocery store owners took particular pride to see the influx of 'ALIEN' faces, but I am not sure he was friendly." My friend's father-in-law told me.

I have seen quite some good porcelains made in Beaver Falls. If I am correct, some of those president plates displayed in Hoyt Institute in New Castle, Penna were made in Beaver Falls. In fact, a lot of restaurants in western Pennsylvania had been using their porcelains for decades.

Besides the fact that Kittanning clay was used in the manufacturing process, I knew nothing about this particular porcelain made in Beaver Falls. Zanesville was more remote since I didn't have the chance to visit its downtown area. But they have laid such a deep impression that the images of the towns are just as clear as the figures on those tiles. In both cases, the objects remind me the flourish of the small river towns during the industrialization period. They once prospered, wealth collected, mansions or bigger houses built, even though what I have seen in the past does not necessarily prove that, or even worse shows the opposite.

There has always something special about those visits to these river towns, especially to someone like me, born and raised outside of US. It was a vivid revelation of American history that would never be put in any Chinese history textbook, yet those white old antique dealers sitting still in either once-to-be warehouses or Victorian family houses are quintessentially American. When I look back, those antique trips seem so remote in the lifestyle of New York where every minute of living must be justified by doing something profitable. The trips of antique shopping had a much slower pace than that that I took stepping out of the subway. Nine out of ten times the stores contained more junk (or in a better phrasing collectibles) than real antiques and 9.5 out of 10 times we ended up not buying, but driving around. But soaking in the stagnant air and surrounded by piles of stuff in an antique mall, one's life became meaningful by seeking and preserving the meaning of the past: The joy came from seeking while the happiness of preserving came like an unexpected trophy.

On my first visit to the antiques strip along Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn, I noticed almost all stores have their websites, except probably Horseman, which is stuffed with mid-century items scattered over five floors.

In the "Incurable Collector Antiques" store, a Columbia University student majoring in journalism was interviewing the owner when I was there. The owner stated that the future of the antiques business is online. With a click of a mouse, more people can have access to the inventory.

Certainly the cost of building a website or like the owner of the Incurable Collector Antiques to use some online services is relatively small. And it for sure reaches out the potential customers. Through website more customers may get to know such stores and come to visit the stores. (Not accidentally, I found out these places by typing "antique strip brooklyn" in google.) Furthermore, some transaction may happen directly online. The owner of Repeat Performance Antiques is now using GoAntiques to sell stuff. And David Marshall, the owner of the Antique Rooms, now owns a second website (http://www.americanandenglishantiques.com/) which utilizes the new flash technology to create online portfolios. Thirdly, with the sharp increase, a lot of stores cannot keep business at where they are now; but an online store makes the choice of location less important.

Still, will the internet change the downturn of the antiques business? I have my doubts.

The first characteristic feature of the antique objects is that they are unique to certain degree. Hardly two items are exactly the same. Some differences are quite subtle such as the splat of a chair or the shade of a lamp. The antique shopping is exciting in that one is personally hand picking stuff that interests his eyes, hands and mind. The scrutinization with the aid of touch and look both strengthens one's perception and cognition and weaken one's objectivity at the same time. Online pictures and description lacks such a warmth and humanity of real antique shopping and flatten the objects into remote and mysterious merchandise.

This is especially true for stores which feature high end antique objects. Will one buy a sofa attributed to Anthony Quevelle without even examining it in person? The trust mechanism that has been built solid in online giants such as eBay or Amazon Market does not exist in workshop-style antique stores. Plus the inborn fragile or bulky character of antiques objects makes shipping troublesome or even cost prohibitive.

Secondly, antiques business is having a hard time regardless to the boom of Internet shopping. High-end antiques can be immune to the market trend (including stock market), but medium ranged objects are closely related to the house market. The money strain hit the regular buyers hard that the pleasure of finding something unexpected and surprising on weekend antique shopping comes with a sting on the hand holding the wallet. (New Yorkers in particular face both the budget constraint and the space limitation. ) With the house market slows down, stalls and renegades, and the food, gas, rents keep rising, the painful struggling period of antique business will last for quite a while.

Lastly, the complains and groans about the change of tastes, in my point of view, may only be partially true. The trends have always worked in a swing fashion. The young generation has witnessed the most fast growth of information in history. They are the masters of finding and digesting what is available from the past. The fact that they are now buying funky furniture does not necessarily mean that they won't fall in love with victorian antiques in future. Money, time and space, all these factors refrain them from venturing into something that can only be fully appreciated when you begin to get involved with a fairly thick check book. But there is a reason, I believe, for those antiques objects being sought after and kept pristine for such a long time. They encompass the characters of uniqueness and universality, the values of humanity, history, religion, symbolism and aestheticism. They may be now hidden in the dusty nooks of some shops, nevertheless, they shine in front of the keen eyes, which fortunately always exist.

Ironically, the American Period Rooms now displayed and treasured in the major art museums were born with little anticipation of being appreciated in themselves as art. Yet, even the notion that the period room was introduced as backdrop for displaying antique objects is not totally correct. In most cases, the silent rooms, dimly lit, cannot speak for themselves. Visitors, who step into the well or the corridor, can always be satisfied by narrowing in on something that ineterests them. In such a warm homely ambiance, one may easily forget to ask such an important pro-curatorial-perspective question. "How and why were these monstrous rooms moved into the museums?"

It was not accidental that the birth of period rooms coincided with the beginning of the Colonial Revival in the 1910's and 1920's. On the one hand, the great war had crashed the ideal images of old civilization in general American public. For them, the hierarchical societal system crowned by aristocracy and nobility upon which the culture and moral standards are based disintegrated with bullets, bombs and gas. The tastes, matters and characteristics of Europe after the great war evolved in such a mad speed that went beyond of the grasps of ordinary Americans. Thus for such a period, Americans either lost interests or couldn't keep in emulating the cross-Atlantic life style, which provided a unique opportunity for them to look back with ease at their own cultural ancestry.

Such an examination of the past didn't come in an objective way considering the social milieu which witnessed the foregone of an agricultural country. First, the kindled interest in colonial American at that time bears a tint of Romanticism reminiscence of the past. Citizens in industrialized metros longed for the missing notions that males took the challenges to civilize the wilderness while females stayed home from the colonial period. The symmetric and orderly of early American homes was an outlet for them to seek the missing “kindness, comfort and safety” in their real life. Second, patriotism played and obvious but important role in such a movement. Americans not only began to take the pride of the cultural past but also took the notion of supremacy and glory in Colonial period.

When the influx of new immigrants came to US at the turn of the 20^th century, Colonial life-style was asserted as superior in that it advocated hardworking and home-centered family standard while the repose of the architecture commanded respect and obedience of social conduct.

In particular, two important milestone events laid the foundation for the birth of the period rooms. Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 showed two period settings. The Connecticut Cottage and the Old Log Cabin New English Kitchen. (An early similar setting happened in Brooklyn at the Sanitary Fair, a romantic nostalgic way of raising money for the Civil War. A wonderful print is still available from BMA’s library.) After the exposition, furniture makers saw a great opportunity of showing furniture in a historical setting for promotion. Such practice even was introduced into the department stores in big to create a homey ambiance.

By the beginning of the 20^th century, Americans had gotten used to accepting period settings for their inherited nostalgia and sentimentality of the past, but not aesthetic values. However, the experimental Hudson-Fulton Exhibition in 1909, for the first time, featured exclusive and comprehensive American Art in an American art institution, thus completed the notion that period rooms are the assembly of higher morale standard, pure and unpretentious life style, glorified past and beautiful artifact. It is true that there were other events or museums which preceded or contributed the concept of period rooms; but none can match the far-reaching influence of these two events which attracted so many audiences.

Recently there are more times than I can realize that I speak of Brooklyn, the borough where I live, not only because it is huge in terms of both land and population, but also because I feel strong sense that Brooklyn should be differentiated from Manhattan, which people associate with fast-pace life-style of rude and indifferent trendy people.

Based on Kenneth Jackson, the professor and scholar at Columbia University, as many as a quarter of all Americans can trace their ancestry to people who once lived in Brooklyn's 81 square miles. It is here that I began to learn of Dutch Colonial living and expanded my knowledge of Victorian architecture, because the borough, with its more than 400 neighborhoods provides the best textbook ever for anyone who wants to indulge in American culture and history.

Non-Brooklynians can hardly appreciate Brooklyn, partly because the name itself brings ones of the dusty memories of industry declination and racial strife & violence, partly because there is simply a more glittering attraction on the other side of the East River. (Carey in Sex and City moaned that even the cabs don’t go to Brooklyn. Well she is wrong.

Sitting here facing Prospect Park, I wonder how the course of my antique and art interest would have meandered if I were living in Manhattan. First of all, the apartment would be much smaller. Thus what can be deployed around the rooms would have to be more limited. (A recent article from NY Times actually mentioned some yuppies’ happy story ending in Brooklyn Heights where they hosted parties in such “roomy” space that made their Manhattan friends jealous.) Secondly, it will certainly change what "should" be collected.

Of course any object, as long as size permits, can fit in rooms of any style. The question is whether it is appropriate or what is appropriate?

What is an appropriate style for Manhattan apartments? I don’t have a firm opinion on that.

As much I am energized (or sometimes annoyed) by the crowd in the city, as I am sometimes tired of its somewhat ominous architecture. The architectural history of modern Manhattan is a history of negation, a denial of the value of past, a murder of aesthetic souls. (Having said that, I do think the gruesome demolishing of architectural gems in Manhattan--and sometimes saving them-- is what makes New York New York.)

From my observation, buildings of around the 1920’s in the Upper West still bears an aroma that is reminiscent of Edith Wharton’s New York ambience. (Oh well, why should I talk about the places of super rich!) But the apartment complex built from 1930’s onward in the Upper East look less cheer. I can still hang some 19^th century paintings or use a drop-leaf empire table, but it is impossible that passing those rows of apartment buildings void of individuality would not have any effect on my mind. Maybe I would select Ashcan school works since their fondness of observing ugliness of urban livings and their voyeur topic may inspire me to peek into the concrete jungles around.

It is not accidental that modern art galleries flourish in lower Manhattan neighborhoods such as Chelsea, the sleek and inhuman metal feeling of the furniture and the abstract visual art would match those long and narrow condos which were converted from warehouses. The same degree of negation of the past in those super rough or super smooth modern paintings and the sheer color and surface of the modern furniture are the natural choice for lower Manhattan. The crowds are young and 60’s and 70’s furnishing and art have influenced them from their youth. What would I choose if I had lived there? I would say my own works. Don’t I deserve 15 minutes’ of fame?

This weekend saw two local events focusing on the art and antique community in Pittsburgh. In Wilkinsburg, an auction at Dargate saw the sell of many American and Continental European items including several pieces of Pittsburgh Glass. Among them, six Bakewell Glass Flutes brought $1,000 and a pair of Celery Vases brought $850.

Items relating to Pittsburgh could also be found at the Kerr Museum Antique Show held at the Oakmont Country Club. Paintings by Christian Walters and George Hetzel, among others, were offered along with an assortment of silver, furniture, glassware and period lighting.

Both the antique show and auction continue on Sunday should you like to participate. For information on the Kerr museum show, visit http://www.kerrmuseum.com/ and for Dargate visit http://www.dargate.com/ or log onto ebay live auctions.

The Merchandise Mart International Antiques Fair™ returns to Chicago’s Merchandise Mart for its 11th year April 25-28, 2008, with the finest assortment of objets d’art and worldly treasures, as well as exciting new show elements. Known as the premier antiques fair in the Midwest, the Merchandise Mart International Antiques Fair provides collectors, connoisseurs, designers and the general public an intimate environment to see a broad range of antiques.

More than 130 of the top national and international antiques and fine art dealers will display a wide range of offerings from across the globe. Dealers will be displaying the finest in 20th Century Design, Architectural Design, Asian Art & Antiquities, Barometers, Ceramics, Coins, Decorative Arts, Folk Art, Furniture, Glass, Jewelry, Paintings, Posters, Prints, Rare Books and Maps, Sculpture, Silver, Textiles, Tribal Art and more. This year’s Fair will also feature the return of dealers from the famed Marche aux Puces in Paris and members of LAPADA, Britain’s hallmark of quality antiques dealers.

The Merchandise Mart International Antiques Fair will once again be an exciting component of Artropolis, a world-class, city-wide celebration art, antiques and culture with Art Chicago at its centerpiece. The multiple art shows under the Artropolis umbrella enable attendees to enjoy a diverse selection of art, prints, sculpture and other three dimensional forms from antiquities to contemporary art. As part of Artropolis, the Fair presents attendees with ideas on how to mix 20th Century furnishings with contemporary art.

MORE INFORMATION

Q. I have a tansu chest i think it is very old. How can i get to know the value of it without dragging it to an antique shop?

A. In order to get the best idea of how to find the value, you may have to drag it out, but an antique shop may not be your best bet. If you were to go the antique shop route, you'd be wise to find one where you can be reasonably sure they have an adequate knowledge of Asian antiques.

Another route would be to hire an appraiser. You can find an appraiser with a knowledge of Asian antiques at the Appraisers Association of America web site.

If you don't want to incur the expense of hiring an appraiser, you might consider sending a photo to an auction house that deals with Asian antiques. Skinner in Boston may be a good option.

I do not have much knowledge in the area of Asian antiques, but from some preliminary research it appears the smaller chests are generally more valuable than the larger clothing chests. Some of the most prized chests are apparently made entirely of something called keyaki wood or kiri wood. Auction records for tansu chests reveal a wide range of values from less than $100 to $30,000. Most fall in the range of $100 to $500. The only way to know for sure is to have someone knowledgeable in Asian antiques (ideally more than one) to look at it.

If anyone out there has any knowledge on this subject, please email us! If you have an items you'd like to write to us about, please send a photo and email to urbanantiques at gmail.com

An appreciation for colonial American artifacts and antiques perhaps started around 1876 with the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Later while the likes of Andrew Mellon, JP Morgan and William K. Vanderbilt were collecting the masters of Europe which would be the foundation stones for the Met and the National Gallery, three others would begin to build a permanent treasure of American paintings and art.

No less known, those three were Henry Ford, Henry Francis Dupont and John D. Rockefeller. Their collections would result in Colonial Williamsburg, Winterthur and the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. While European collections may have included a room here and there, entire buildings were included in some American collections.

One amusing anecdote is revealed by Harold Sack in the book American Treasure Hunt. Henry Ford had just purchased the Wayside Inn of Sudbury, Massachusetts, immortalized in Henry Wordsworth Longfellow’s Tales of a Wayside Inn. Ford had approached Israel Sack, Harold’s father and a prominent American furniture dealer. Sack was given the task of furnishing the inn. Ford had eyed a highboy at auction, but lost it to another bidder, a Mr. Dillon. Ford approached Dillon, provided his name and added that he had recently purchased the Wayside Inn. Ford asked Dillon if he agreed the highboy belongs in the Wayside Inn. Dillon agreed and suggested Ford instead sell the Inn to him.

Today all three of these institutions offer opportunities to learn about these collectors and their collections, and perhaps more importantly about the early country, its people and its craftsmen. Both Winterthur and Colonial Williamsburg offer educational opportunities to learn about American decorative arts.

One item I found particularly rewarding was a cd I picked up at Winterthur, “Music from An American Country Estate.” I can’t find it on Alibris, Amazon or the Winterthur online store now, however they may have it if you call. It consists of recordings from private performances in the mansion and you can even hear the enunciator ring!

Rockefeller, DuPont, Ford and others pioneered the collection of many artifacts that not only help us to know our own story as a nation, but have allowed us to appreciate the culture that emerged in what was to become the United States and know the quality of craft that was being produced here. While some sense of this can be appreciated at large museums like the Met, a visit to Williamsburg, Winterthur and the Henry Ford Museum can make the picture of the collector as well as the collected more complete.

Finally, before you go, click on this link to see a short video of the Rockefeller’s enjoying tea at Williamsburg. click here

More than one house tour has left somewhat of an empty impression. So many of today’s old homes, restored to a new-like state on the outside are left without much of a trace of the old inside. Occasionally the staircase, or at least the newel post and railing is there, or a brick wall that never would have been exposed in its own time. Its often that most of the interior walls have been removed, bathrooms expanded into once bedrooms and recessed lights in the ceilings.

Its all for want of an urban space, which we now associate with the lofts retrofitted into old warehouse buildings. These became popular in the 1980s and today, when they are not available, we tend to rip apart an old townhouse to make a pseudo loft apartment.

These homes then are filled with contemporary furniture, sometimes with a Pottery Barn or even Ikea look, and once in a while with some higher-end modernistic furniture, with colorful blown glass, frameless paintings lacking any representation, leather, stiff-looking cushions and plenty of chrome.

Somewhere the value and attractiveness of the antique has been lost.

It could be that the country look of the antique which has been popular for some time just can’t fit into an urban space. Decorating with primitives, aside I long to see a town home filled with mahogany and brass.

It’s not necessary to fill a home exclusively with antiques. Some people who enjoy the look of antiques like to put old and new together, often using antique accents with new seating furniture.

Let’s take a look at this Almafi collection at Macy’s for example. It has a sophisticated modern look to it. It’s a look many urban homeowners might try to replicate or build upon. Now imagine taking away the chrome table and the ottoman.

Consider the look achieved when placing an empire sideboard on the wall behind it and a Caucasian rug that picks up some of the rust tomes from the sofa. Now place a Chinese table in the center where the ottoman or coffee table would be and a large fern where the chrome table had been. A real painting framed with significant size and depth (gold leaf is great) would add even more. You really don’t want that mirror above your sideboard!

Of course once you start buying antiques, your room will quickly fill and until it's time to part with the non-antiques, only unlike the antiques, you’ll find they’re worth a fraction of what you paid for them. Even as the antique furniture market has remained relatively flat in recent times, new furniture depreciates quickly.

Of course if you’re out to decorate a room, the right antiques aren’t at the mall or furniture store. You have to look for them and if there’s one thing modern people don’t have much of, it's time.

That unfortunately leads many who like the antique look to instead go for fake antiques—cheap imports made to look classic and old. Yet remember you’re probably going to be living with whatever you buy for a while, and while there’s no good cheap way around the time commitment it takes to learn about and find good antiques, having that kind of quality can be well worth the extra effort.

You also might think an empire sideboard would be outrageously expensive. Yet they are often less than what you might think and less than what you would pay for an item of comparable quality at a fine furniture retailer. Consider comparing a sideboard such as this one with this one sold recently at auction. Both are quality furniture, but one is the real antique. Now when you think how easy it is to spend that much on a big screen-television or computer, something you’ll never be able to get much of any money back out of, its becomes easy to convince yourself to spend the money.

(Photo, home circa 1950 decorated with antiques)

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to travel with a piano across the Alleghenies before the days of trucks, railroads or even canals? Yet an ad appearing in the Post-Gazette of July 20, 1813 suggests someone did just that.

The advertisement of 1813, published some sixteen years before the completion of the canal, informs readers only that a fine-toned piano forte was for sale. A maker is not identified and it is unknown where the instrument was manufactured. It could be that the piano traveled, somehow, from Baltimore or Philadelphia, but it could also have been made at home.

With advertisements appearing as early as 1814, Charles Rosenbaum was one known maker, and he seems to have worked in the city for five years. The quality of his work suggests a degree of cultural sophistication unexpected in a frontier town, and reinforces the complexities and cost of importing goods from the east.

Yet if Rosenbaum was the first manufacturer of piano fortes in Pittsburgh and he set up shop in 1814, then the piano advertised in 1813 could not have been made by him. If it had journeyed across the Alleghenies, it wouldn’t be the only piano to do so. Family history tells us that a Philadelphia-built piano forte owned by General Richard Butler was given to his daughter Mary in 1791, just before leaving on a fateful military expedition. In 1791, the piano forte somehow made it over Indian trails from Philadelphia to what is now Lawrenceville. It’s now located in the Heinz History Center.

(shown is a New York made piano forte now at the Westmoreland Museum of Art)

A couple updates on furniture-making in Pennsylvania. First, my friend loaned me a booklet published in 1982 from the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Apparently there was an exhibit at the former facility in Oakland. The book covers clocks, chests, slant-front desks, glassware and silver. The book was reprinted in 2001, but I couldn't find a copy available online. The research does not provide insight into what was made in Western Pennsylvania after 1820.

Yesterday I also had the opportunity to visit Neshannock Woods, a cabinetmaker and antique dealer near Grove City. A period workshop provides insight into how furniture was once made. There are also some period Western Pennsylvania pieces available for purchase including an 1837 empire chest with origins in Washington, Pa.

You can visit them online at Neshannock Woods

While furniture made in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston and New York has been well documented, furniture made in cities like Pittsburgh remains to be fully discovered.

When the city and environs began to be settled in the late eighteenth century it was difficult to transport furniture from East-Coast cities. It would seem much of what was used in Pittsburgh, Washington and Greensburg at that time might have been made here.

A review of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 1800 onward shows advertisements for cabinetmakers starting around 1811. By 1840 there were at least seven cabinetmakers and a number of companies including the Allegheny Chair Company on Ohio Street at the Diamond. By 1835, the book Pittsburgh’s Commercial development shows furniture being both imported and exported from Pittsburgh. Before 1811 there are quite a few advertisements from merchants in Philadelphia and Baltimore advertising wares.

There are documented pieces from Western Pennsylvania before 1800, but the extent of refined furniture manufacturing in Pittsburgh at that time remains largely unknown (at least to this author).

The early pieces that are known range from simple to sophisticated, from plain walnut to fine inlay featuring vines and leaves.

What were the influences? Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York? How much of the style is home-grown? How can Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania furniture be identified? Who were the cabinetmakers before 1800? What did the products made by the companies advertising after 1811 look like? These are questions I’d like to attempt to answer.

If you have any insight, please contact me.